Sustainable Food: If This Doesn’t Convince You, Nothing Will

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So what’s it going to take to get your community hooked on sustainable food?

If you are reading this, you probably already know about many of the problems with our food system and you're probably making some efforts to change your buying and eating habits. But what about your parents? Your neighbors? The people shopping the inside isles at conventional grocery stores in your town? What is it going to take for us to reach out to that next layer of eaters and entice them with sustainable food?

Climate change’s connection to our food system is a big deal (you can read about it here), but it isn’t something that we can see on a daily basis. It’s there, but personally, it doesn’t pop up on my “urgent” radar every day. For some, climate change might be their connection to sustainable food. For others it might be animal welfare, worker’s issues, or water pollution. You never know what will be the enticing issue that leads a person to investigate the problems in our food system. But I do know that there is one thing that none of us can get away from; personal health.

The connection between personal health and sustainable food is undeniable.

And my personal health is something that I can’t get away from ‘ I wake up everyday feeling good or feeling bad. Not to mention, I also have to deal with the health of my family and friends – every day. Most people aren’t quiet about their aches and pains either. So for some who haven’t found their way to sustainable food, personal health might be that hook we are looking for!

If I tell you that sustainable food can greatly increase your health, does that get your attention? Do you think that your parents, neighbors, and people shopping at the conventional grocery stores might be more curious about sustainable food if they thought it could help them avoid diseases? Is the fact that sustainable food can greatly influence health enough reason to pay attention? I'd like to think that it is!

Just as the industrial agricultural system is a major influence in climate change, it is also a major influence in the bad health of our country. We need to address the whole food system, but while that is happening (that is happening, right?), I appeal to you to take your food more seriously based on the simple fact that it will increase your health.

Over the next few weeks, I will go into the many connections between personal health and sustainable food that are worth paying attention to. We are all concerned about our health and the health of our families, and learning how to maintain and increase your health also happens to be a great introduction to sustainable food. Here are some issues I will explore in this series:

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Genetically Modified Food

Pesticides/Herbicides

Meat Consumption

Local Food/Gardening

Processed Foods

Antibiotics

Indulgence/Moderation

Food as Medicine

Obesity/Disease

Learn More

Let's start at the beginning - what is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)? Sugar as we know it traditionally came from sugar cane and later from sugar beets. HFCS was developed from corn in the late 1950s, refined for industrial production in the 1970s

To start at the beginning, what are Genetically Modified Organisms? GMOs have had their DNA altered in a way that doesn’t happen naturally. Individual genes are transferred from one organism to another to obtain a desired trait or characterist